Keeping That Muffin Top Away

When it comes to weight loss, actually losing weight is the easier battle.   The real war starts the day you reach your goal weight.   Fighting to not put the weight back on is, in it's own way, a harder and much longer skirmish.

I bring this up because there's a real good, no-nonsense piece in the Huffington Post about weight maintenance which you can read here.   The article explains both why maintaining weight is such an uphill battle, along with how to maintain weight loss.

The number one rule in keeping weight off is that you can never, ever go back to your old eating habits.   As the author explains, your fat cells are just dying to plump up again and looking for any excuse to do so.   Start eating potato chips again, and those cells will start rounding out again.

I've used to go through the dieting yo-yo myself.  I'd change my eating habits, lose weight, then go back to the old habits and the weight would pile back on again.

I've also seen dozens of friends lose 20, 30, or more pounds on The South Beach Diet, Atkins, Jenny Craig etc. and each and everyone of them gained the weight back as soon as they went off the diet.

I've managed to keep my weight off now for more than 4 years.  I did so by never going back.   I'll admit that now and then I allow myself an occassional "treat," and may even go off for a week at a time if I'm on vacation, but for the most part, my eating habits have changed for life.

I'll also admit to some long term "drifting."   I'll go through periods where I start to slip and the scale starts to move upwards, but then I correct course again, and the weight will come off.  

But, I've managed to stablize my weight for the most part at around 130 pounds.  I'd like to be thinner, and when I really work at it I can get down to 125, but it never seems to "stick" at that weight.  

I guess one woman can only do so much!!